July 23 at 4:40AM
Stephen Colbert and Margaret Spellings Discuss Spanking Our Kids
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings tells Stephen why the No Child Left Behind Act will be one of the top achievements of the Bush administration.
Stephen wants to know if John McCain or Barack Obama would leave the most children behind. Where do you weigh in?
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Was she ever a teacher? That's the problem with education right now. Most of the people in charge of education policy have never been teachers. They've never worked a day in a public school. I read an interview with Spellings where she expressed how being a mother made her more qualified for this position. That drives me nuts. Being a parent doesn't make you qualified to be a teacher. It's degrading to the teaching profession.
Forget the imbecile policy she was flogging. Didn't anyone else catch the sultry once over and gleeful eyebrow lift she gave Colbert when she considered what "federally mandated spanking" might mean? And Colbert's shock when she suggested "maybe we oughta try that"? I think our Secretary is a beefy amazon sexpot, and I can't understand why no one else has seen it.
No Child Left Behind – it was so amazing to see the Bush administration & Spellings pay attention to education and make such an honest effort towards changing things. Unfortunately, as a teacher of 5 years, I can tell you from experience it is not working at the classroom, teacher, or child level. Do we now have school report cards? Yes – too bad each state makes up their own exams – so comparing the scores/percentages between states is completely meaningless. Can we measure the progress of students? Well, Spellings and Bush think we can – except the progress is measured by different graduating classes. So imagining judging a school by how the 5th grade class of 2007 compares with the 5th grade class of 2008? Any teacher in the field can tell you that the level of skill and intelligence of students varies widely each year. Your high-school doesn't have a championship winning football team every year, does it? Of course not, so imagine how a school's "progress" looks the year after a star-studded group goes through. You have the track the SAME students if you want to know if there is development. All in all – I'm in favor of more accountability in education – but NCLB isn't helping American education – it's taking it in the wrong direction. (Like a few other of Bush's actions)
Leaving children behind is good for crime dramas and teachers in tough 'hood feel good stories. Ask Sidney Portier and Edward James Olmos.
Deluded woman who is so far removed from the negative impact NCLB has had on the academic enrichment of America's poorest and most underserved children. I can't believe she has the audacity to go on TV and say IT WORKED. Ask any honest teacher, school psychologist, principal, or other current employee who works at the school level (rather than just the policy-making level) whether this administration's stance on education has improved their ability to serve children, and they will laugh, vomit…or both. What a disgrace.
Hmm… Let me guess. The nominee who graduated from Columbia with BA in Political Science and International Relations, then magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, and then taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years? Or the nominee who graduated from the United States Naval Academy with a class rank 894 of 899?
Seriously, do you really have to ask who will leave the most children behind?! Duh, it's John McCain. Barack Obama pledges to make us all work harder. Scary to some, I'm sure….but personally, I think it would do us all good to work hard.